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The Public Television of Armenia has announced the name of the Eurovision 2015 Song Contest’s participant from the African continent.
Vahe Tilbian, who is from Ethiopia, is thus the third representative of Geneology which aims to bring together ethnic Armenian singers from different continents across the globe at the international music event set to be held in Vienna, Austria in May.
Tilbian is represented as a popular musician known for his outstanding image and energetic character. His unique music style is said to range from rock to techno, raggie to R&B, Armenian to Ethiopian and Latin.
The band’s six singers will be representatives of different continents sharing a common history.
The first two named participants are Yesai Altunian from France and Tamar Kaprielian from the United States.
The band will perform the song “Don’t Deny” at the contest.
The fourth participant will be named on February 27.
This year’s song contest will unite participants from 40 countries under the slogan Building Bridges.
Vahe was born in Ethiopia to a family of Armenia parents (Garo Tilbian and Ani Aslanian). His grandfather on father’s side settled in the country after narrowly escaping the Genocide. His mother’s ancestors left Western Armenia in the later 1890’s and early 1900’s.
A graduate of the Vancouver University, Canada, Vahe began demonstrating a serious interest in music upon obtaining his bachelor’s degrees in biology. He commenced as a senior tenor in the choir “The Motley Singers”.
The young singer’s first song, “Life or Something Like it”, was released in 2010. In 2012, his single “Don’t Stop” won the third place in the Armenian Pulse Music Award.
Later the same year, he completed the disc “Mixology” which was released for free.
In 2013, the singer released the song Yene Tizita (Nostalgia or Memories), which was a reproduced version of an old Ethiopian prototype. Its director and producer are Aramazd Kalajian and Mulugeta Amaru.
For the past two years, Vahe has been the soloist of Zemen Band. He has collaborated with singers Zeritu Kebede and Michael Belayneh, and the Nubian Arc Band. The ethnic Armenian singer has also been a back vocalist and first concert performer for Abby Lakew, Nhatty, Tsedenya Gebremarkos, Eyob Mekonnen and Shewandagn Hailu. He has performed concerts with Oliver Mtukudzi and Vee and Liz Ogumbo during tours in Ethiopia.
Vahe has been a correspondent for the Ethiopia-based Zoma Magazine; he can freely expresses his thoughts in Armenian, English, Amharic, Italian and French.
The young singer now intends to release two more discs, of which one will be completely Armenina, while the other will feature the Ethiopian musical culture, at the same time presenting a mix of equivalent elements.
Vahe is now training for the contest.
The Eurovision 2016 semifinals are due on May 19 and 21. The final concert will take place on May 23.